Sourcing guide
amfori BSCI: what the audit actually covers, and what to ask for
A social compliance audit tells you how a factory treats its people. It says nothing about whether the clay is safe. Here is what each layer covers, what the grade means, and the five things worth asking a supplier for.
Short answer
amfori BSCI is a social compliance audit of a production site, covering working hours, wages, health and safety, and the absence of child or forced labour. It does not test the product. For air dry clay and craft kits, material safety is covered separately by ASTM F963 in the United States and EN71 in the European Union.
What does amfori BSCI audit?
amfori BSCI is a social compliance framework run by amfori (formerly the Foreign Trade Association), used mainly by European retailers and importers. It is not a product safety test and it is not a quality certification. It examines how a production site treats the people working in it.
- Working hours, overtime and rest days
- Wages, payment records and lawful deductions
- Health and safety: machinery guarding, fire exits, PPE, first aid, dormitory and canteen conditions
- No child labour and no forced or bonded labour
- Freedom of association and non-discrimination
- Basic environmental compliance and chemical handling
An auditor visits the site, interviews workers off the production floor, reviews payroll and time records, then scores each area. The output is a report with findings, not a badge.
What does the BSCI grade actually mean?
Audits end in a grade from A to E. Broadly: A and B are good, C means acceptable with corrective follow-up, D and E mean serious findings. The grade is a summary, and summaries hide things.
Two factories can both hold a C and be very different businesses: one with a single overtime-record gap, another with repeated safety findings. The grade alone will not tell you which. Ask for the findings list behind it.
What should you ask a supplier for?
- The full report, not the certificate cover. It should carry a unique report ID and an audit date. Anything older than twelve months needs a follow-up audit attached.
- The findings, not only the grade. Which areas were flagged, what the factory committed to fix, and by when.
- The audited legal entity and site address. This is the most common gap. A report covering a trading company's office proves nothing about the production floor that will make your goods.
- A corrective action plan with dates. A serious factory can tell you what it fixed last cycle.
- Verification access. amfori members can check a report in the scheme database. If you are not a member, ask the factory to show the report ID in the amfori portal during a call.
Where BSCI stops, and what covers the rest
BSCI will not tell you whether the clay contains lead, cadmium or barium, whether small parts break off a figurine, or whether the paint is flammable. Those are product safety questions, and they are answered by different standards:
- ASTM F963 — the US federal toy safety standard: mechanical and physical properties, flammability, heavy metal migration.
- EN71 — the European equivalent, split across EN71-1 (mechanical), EN71-2 (flammability) and EN71-3 (migration of elements).
A supplier with BSCI and no product test reports is compliant on labour and unknown on safety. A supplier with test reports and no social audit is the reverse. Buyers who sell into the EU or North America generally need both, and they are separate documents from separate organisations.
Red flags worth taking seriously
- A certificate image with no report ID and no audit date
- A report whose scope reads "trading" or names an address that is not the production site
- A report older than twelve months with no follow-up cycle
- Staff who cannot name the audit company or the auditor
- The same report being presented by two unrelated suppliers
How this works at Siglo
Siglo runs its own factory in Liaocheng, Shandong — mixing, moulding, curing, packing and inspection happen on one site under one QC team. The site is audited under amfori BSCI for social compliance, and product lines are tested to ASTM F963 and EN71.
We share the current audit report and the test reports for the specific SKU you are buying, under NDA, before you place a purchase order. If a buyer wants to verify in the amfori portal, we will join that call.
Short answers
Is BSCI the same as ISO 9001?
No. ISO 9001 is a quality management system certification about process control. amfori BSCI is a social compliance audit about working conditions and labour rights. A factory can hold either, both, or neither.
Can a trading company hold a BSCI report?
Yes, but check what was audited. The report must name the production site, not just the trading office. If it names an office, ask which factory makes your goods and for that site's report.
How current does the audit need to be?
Ask for the most recent cycle — audits are typically renewed annually, and grades trigger a follow-up window. A report older than twelve months without a follow-up attached should be treated as out of date.
Does BSCI cover the materials in the product?
No. BSCI covers people and site conditions. Material safety is covered by ASTM F963 in the US and EN71 in the EU, tested per product line.